Which design flies furthest?

The dart is fast and straight and suits a hard throw. The Nakamura lock glider is slower and floats further from a gentle throw, and its locked nose keeps it in shape after crashes.

Why are some lines numbered twice?

A line with two numbers is creased in one step and folded again in a later one. The dart’s middle line is creased at step 1 and folded for good at step 4.

What paper should I use?

Ordinary 80 gsm copier paper. Thicker card is too stiff to fold the nose cleanly and makes the plane nose-heavy.

Will it print on one sheet?

Yes. It opens at 190 × 265 mm, which prints on A4 and US Letter with room for the printer margin. Cut on the outline, or type your paper’s own size and fold the whole sheet.

Paper Airplane Template — Free Printable Fold Lines, Any Size

The paper airplane template, flat and folded

Paper airplane template — free printable dieline with cut and fold lines, any size — The printable dieline at its standard size. Type your own size above for yours.

Paper airplane folded up from the template — the finished piece — The box it folds into.

What this template is for

A paper airplane with every fold line printed on the sheet and numbered in the order you fold it: the classic dart, or the Nakamura lock glider that flies slow and far. Print, fold on the lines, throw. Kids, classrooms, parties and contests.

Also called paper plane · paper airplane folding · dart paper airplane · nakamura lock — all the same shape, and this is it.

Kids’ crafts and rainy-day fun
Classroom lessons on flight and forces
Paper plane contests and parties
Teaching younger children to fold

How to use this template

All four downloads are the same paper airplane at the same size — only the format changes.

PDF printing at home: Print at 100 per cent, or hand it to a print shop as "actual size, no scaling".
PNG 300 dpi Canva, Photoshop, Procreate: Upload, lock it in place and design your paper airplane on top. Free plan and phone included. Full Canva walkthrough →
SVG Cricut, Illustrator, Inkscape, Affinity: Vector, with cuts, folds and labels on separate layers. Cricut and Silhouette walkthrough →
DXF Silhouette, laser and vinyl cutters: Two layers, CUT and FOLD — and the one free Silhouette Studio Basic will open.

Getting it printed properly →

Printing it

Type your size above, then download the PDF.
Print at 100% — never “fit to page”, or every measurement comes out wrong.
Too big for the paper? Pick your paper size and leave Fit the pieces to the page ticked: each piece gets its own place on a sheet and the PDF comes out with every page in it, nothing cut in half and nothing to tape.

How to put it together

These pictures are the paper airplane itself, not a generic diagram — change the measurements above and the template changes, but the three steps never do.

Cut the solid lines
Every solid line is a cut. Do the inside shapes first, while the sheet is still whole and easy to hold.
Score every dashed line
Dashed lines are folds. Score each one first — an empty ballpoint against a ruler — or the card cracks along the outside of the bend.
Fold, glue and hold
Cut the sheet out on the outline (or set the size to your whole sheet of paper). Fold along the lines in the order of their numbers; the steps are listed under the drawing. Lines with the same number are folded in the same step, one on each side. Crease every fold hard with a fingernail. For a straighter flight, bend the back edge of each wing up a little.

Glue: a glue stick for paper, white PVA on card — hold each seam thirty seconds, and let the box dry standing up.

Questions about the paper airplane

Which design flies furthest?: The dart is fast and straight and suits a hard throw. The Nakamura lock glider is slower and floats further from a gentle throw, and its locked nose keeps it in shape after crashes.
Why are some lines numbered twice?: A line with two numbers is creased in one step and folded again in a later one. The dart’s middle line is creased at step 1 and folded for good at step 4.
What paper should I use?: Ordinary 80 gsm copier paper. Thicker card is too stiff to fold the nose cleanly and makes the plane nose-heavy.
Will it print on one sheet?: Yes. It opens at 190 × 265 mm, which prints on A4 and US Letter with room for the printer margin. Cut on the outline, or type your paper’s own size and fold the whole sheet.

Print your own design on it

Add a logo, photo or pattern in the panel on the left and drag it onto the paper airplane. It is trimmed to the cut outline, embedded properly in the PDF, and never leaves your computer — most free template sites hand you the outline and stop there. How printing your own design works.

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